An oil company may be required to keep records for the federal or state government. One type of record is a seal record report. From time to time, such as on a random basis, the government authority, whether the federal government or state government, will audit an oil company and request the seal record reports. Federal or state auditors will want to see that the seals are numbered correctly and that the seals correctly correspond to oil tank numbers and loads that were hauled out. Seal records tell a story.
A seal is usually a metal strip having two ends. One end is a locking end. The other end is a free end that is inserted into the locking end, whereupon the metal strip takes a loop form. The free end is inserted through an oil tank valve or through an opening in an oil valve dart, and then the free end is inserted into the locking end and the two ends are locked together. The only way to remove the seal from the oil tank valve or the oil tank valve dart is to destroy the structural integrity of the seal or the oil tank valve dart such as by cutting the seal.
An oil tank valve that is sealed with only a seal, but without a seal dart through an oil tank valve is not considered a legal seal by either the federal or state government.
To remove the seal, a trucker will either cut the seal with a tool such as a tinsnips or stick the handle of a relatively large steel wrench (about 16 inches long used to open the oil tank valve) through the loop of the seal. The trucker will work the handle back and forth or pry down on the seal to break the seal by force or bend and break the dart. Or a trucker may open the oil tank valve with the dart still locked on the oil tank valve, thereby at best bending the dart and at worst breaking the dart into two or more pieces. In either case, the bent or broken dart needs to be replaced. Some darts are hollow and are easily bent or broken.
A dart is inserted through the aligned openings of an oil tank valve. Then the free end of a new seal is inserted through a slot in the new dart and then the seal is formed or bent into a half circle such that the free end is drawn adjacent to the other end of the new seal that engages a lock. The exposed, flat, free end of the new seal is inserted into this lock that covers the other end of the new seal. Once the seal is inserted into the lock, a spring or other sort of locking mechanism permanently engages the free end of the seal such that the free end of the seal cannot be removed from the locking end without compromising the structural integrity of the seal such as by cutting or breaking the seal. The locking mechanisms are such that they cannot be tampered with. If tampered with, there is clear physical evidence on the seal and/or lock that the seal was compromised. The types of locking mechanisms used are such that, even if disassembled and reassembled, the locking mechanism will show evidence of such reassembly.